Natasha Peterson
Natasha Peterson is one of the four main protagonists of The College Experience. She has terrible eating habits and lacks self confidence because of her weight. She is taking a variety of classes because she has not decided on a major yet. Natasha's storylines focus on how she lives with her weight and her relationship with Colton Zidek. Family and Relationships *Colton Zidek - boyfriend *Faith Butcher - grandmother *Tanya MacNeven - roommate *Lin Cook - former roommate Before College Natasha lived in Eagle City all her life. She lived with her grandparents in her childhood. When Natasha was very young, her grandparents were arrested for dealing drugs. After that, she bounced between 20 foster homes. In these times of pain, the only comfort she ever found was in eating food, and lots of it. She never fit in well in all the schools she attended and was always picked on for her weight. During Natasha's senior year, she was visited by Franklin Stone, who offered her a special full ride to Eagle University. This scholarship is only awarded to one student per year, and Dr. Stone felt sympathy for Natasha, as he too bounced from home to home as a kid. From this moment, Natasha developed a deep fondness for Dr. Stone. Freshman Year On Convocation day, Natasha became friends with Greg, Kevin, and Tanya when they showed her kindness. That very moment, she saw Dr. Stone fall through his office window and watched him die right in front of her. This incident left her heartbroken. While moving in to her dorms, she met Colton Zidek, and was attracted instantly to his gentleman nature. Interested in him, Natasha began stalking him by analyzing his Facebook account and asking his friends questions about him. Colton later reveals that he is homesick and that Natasha talking to him every day makes him miss home a little less. Colton soon invites Natasha to work at the animal shelter he volunteers at, and the two begin spending a lot of time together. Natasha reveals to Greg, Kevin, and Tanya that she likes Colton, and asks them to keep her secret. When Greg decides to begin investigating the murder of Dr. Stone, Natasha feels uncomfortable. Natasha's conscience tells her that she should report Greg if he breaks any rules, while Greg threatens to reveal her crush on Colton if she says anything. Following their confrontation, Natasha reveals to Colton that she's keeping a secret that she can't talk about. Colton says that he understands her situation, and they share an intimate moment by the fountain. When Kevin convinces Greg that Dr. Hicks has "the hots" for Colton, Greg tries to get Natasha to convince Colton to quit his lifeguarding position and work for Dr. Hicks. Though she does not want to feel that she is manipulating him, Natasha tries anyway. She tries making the job with Dr. Hicks sound attractive, says she's scared for Colton's safety at the pool, and even tries jumping in the pool to get Colton to save her. When none of these attempts are successful, Greg tampers with the pool chlorinator despite Natasha's persuasion. Because the pool is no longer usable, Colton is forced to begin working for Dr. Hicks, while Natasha keeps quiet about what she watched Greg do. Natasha gets picked on by Dr. Reese for her weight. Colton tries unsuccessfully to comfort her. Greg is able to comfort her, and when Greg sees that Colton is jealous of him, Greg sees that Colton likes Natasha just as much as she likes him. He reveals to Colton that Natasha likes him, and tells him to ask her out. On Christmas Day, Colton, who had planned to be home for the holidays, hid inside a Christmas present under Natasha's tree. Natasha, hearing thuds from inside the present, got scared, grabbed a frying pan, and hit Colton in the head before she realized it was him. After Colton woke up, and Natasha apologized profusely, they finally shared their feelings for each other. On their first date, Colton tells Natasha how he feels that it is important for them to share everything. Natasha, ridden with guilt, admits that Greg tampered with the chlorinator, and she watched him do it. Colton confronts Greg about it, and Greg confesses. After about two months of dating, Natasha forces Colton to talk about her weight. Colton amazes Natasha by saying that he doesn't care about her physical appearance one bit, but offers to help her lose weight if she wants to. While guarding Greg's room from Marie Quackenbush, Natasha discovers Dr. Hicks breaking in. Dr. Hicks, who is really in league with Sparky, claims that Sparky's gang is threatening her to find the key to Dr. Stone's safe. Natasha wants to trust Dr. Hicks, but Kevin, who was given the key by Dr. Stone, is a bit more skeptical. He gives the key to Natasha to give to Dr. Hicks, hoping Natasha will use this to gain her trust and figure her out, but Natasha ends up trusting Dr. Hicks and does not reveal to the rest of her friends that the items in the safe pointed to Chloe Rochard's disappearance. On the evening of Spring Fest, Dr. Hicks tricks Natasha and her friends into going down to the boiler room, where she locks them in so they wouldn't interfere with Sparky's plan to recover Chloe's body from under Stone Hall before the construction workers found it. After Destiny helps them escape, Natasha and her friends chase Jeremy Smith (Adam Stone) backstage during Lady Gaga's concert to stop him from setting off explosives. Jeremy throws items at all of the friends, knocking them unconscious, until only Natasha remains. She is able to jump to the platform above the lights and distract Jeremy long enough for Lin Cook to hit Jeremy in the head with a volleyball, knocking him off the platform, and through the wooden stage floor. There is no explosion, and no distraction, but Sparky still had enough time to recover Chloe's body. Despite the advice from her friends, Natasha pities Jeremy, and goes below stage to bandage his wounds. Because of this, Jeremy does not reveal her location to Sparky when Sparky comes looking for him. Natasha spends the summer after freshman year on Colton's family farm. Sophomore Year When Natasha returns to Eagle University after a summer on the farm, she has lost all of her weight and is astonishingly beautiful. Tanya takes Natasha shopping for clothes, and while Natasha is hesitant at first, she slowly becomes more comfortable wearing revealing clothing. Colton expresses that he is uncomfortable with the way she dresses, but she brushes off everything he says with excuses like, "People have stared at me my whole life. ... At least now they have something decent to stare at." Jeremy approaches Natasha and Colton and informs them that Sparky has asked him to kill them and their friends. However, Jeremy decided not to, and lied to Sparky saying that he did. He tells Natasha that it is best if they never speak again. As Natasha becomes more and more comfortable with immodesty, Colton begins to think that he and Natasha could use some time apart. At the same time, Colton is helping Alex keep a secret, and since it is hard to keep it from Natasha, Colton finds an internship 4 hours away and leaves Eagle University for the year. His communications with Natasha become less frequent, and Tanya tries to help Natasha see the possibility that their relationship may be on the rocks, but Natasha is in total denial. While Colton is gone, Natasha continually tries to earn the attention and admiration of other men, which leads to some of the other girls noticing and talking about her behind her back. Natasha comforts Tanya, who reveals that she likes Kevin after he's started dating Kelly. However, Natasha is supportive of Kevin's relationship and is able to become friends with Kelly. Around this time, Natasha begins to try cooking, creating a disaster each time: boiling hot dogs inside the plastic wrapper, putting soup cans in the oven causing them to explode all over her, and finally setting fire to her new apartment building, leaving it in ruins. One day, Kevin catches Natasha naked, which was an accident, but when Kevin mentions it in a phone conversation with Colton, Colton believes that she flashed him on purpose. The same day, a group of men from the Alpha Alpha Alpha fraternity attempt to gang rape Natasha, leading her dress normally once again. Natasha decides to take a trip to Colton's workplace and apologize to him for the way she had been behaving, but by this point, she is startled to discover that Colton's ex-girlfriend Brooke is working with him. Brooke, who wants Colton back, discovers that Natasha is there, and makes sure that Colton doesn't see her. Before Natasha can make any contact with Colton, she hears him reveal to Brooke that he plans to break up with her. Natasha becomes upset, and later angry, and takes it out on her smug art professor. In a fit of rage, she insults the professor and spontaneously decides to change her major. Personality Over the course of the first two seasons, Natasha has evolved from timid, overweight, and unconfident to a bold, voluptuous attention seeker, and then to a more typical everyday college girl. Natasha had a difficult childhood, bouncing between foster homes, and would overeat to cope, or just because she was bored. Colton and Kelly both helped her to channel her anxiety into exercise instead. Natasha sometimes gets over emotional and self conscious. She can be quick to call herself stupid, and beats herself up over the things that go wrong. Natasha has a very strong sense of right and wrong and does not believe in breaking the rules. Hence, she is terrible at keeping secrets. She is optimistic and tries to see the light in every situation, but is sometimes too quick to trust the wrong people. Natasha has a hard time making decisions (from what her major should be to what restaurant to go to on any given date), and would prefer that others make decisions for her. When she does make a decision, it is usually based on emotion and instinct. A running gag in the story is that Natasha is an absolutely horrendous cook, resulting in both disgusting food and kitchen disasters. Natasha is able to knock people unconscious with her frying pan, accidentally knocking Colton out twice. Behind the Scenes Since the first episode, Natasha is voiced by "The Great Bibbler", a nickname in reference to a stone frog that she and Lord Egghead briefly stole from a neighbor's house! The Great Bibbler writes some comedic scenes in most of Lord Egghead's scripts, although she tries to forget them, so she will be surprised when the episode comes out. Although Natasha is fat during Season 1, her sim was originally created as her current thin version, as we knew that is what she would be for the majority of the series. Natasha is one of three characters to appear in every episode (either in the present or in a flashback). She is seen and heard in a flashback in episode 1x16 (which centers around Dr. Stone's past). In episode 2x16 (which centers around Alex), she is seen and heard in a flashback, and is seen but not heard in the present.